PEOPLE & THEIR PROBLEMS

New Delhi, 9 May 2008

Tamil Nadu Shows the Way

TRANSGENDERS NOW NO LONGER OUTCAST

By Dr. Syed Ali Mujtaba

"Ippadikku Rose" (Yours, Rose), the half-hour TV show on a channel is drawing huge attention in Tamil Nadu. Not because of its content but due to its anchor Rose, who has become India's first transsexual celebrity to host a TV show.

The 28-year old anchor, formerly known as Ramesh Venkatesan has a Masters degree in biomedical engineering from Louisiana Tech University, USA. He started wearing women's clothes full-time four years ago but still waited for acceptance from the family and society at large. However, after hosting the show Rose has not only become a celebrity but also an unofficial ambassador for the transgenders in the country. 

It’s the inspirational aspect of people like her that has moved the Tamil Nadu Government to take the bold step to recognize transgenders as a separate gender for the first time in the country.

Towards that end, the State Government announced on the floor of the Assembly to constitute a welfare board for the transgenders in the State and allocated Rs 275, 000 for the year 2008-09. The welfare board that comprises of eight members is empowered to look into the various problems, difficulties and inconveniences faced by the transgenders. And based on these inputs, formulate and execute welfare schemes for their betterment.

The State Government also announced the creation of a special database of transgenders that would help deal with their problems and demands. The database would be created by a non-governmental organization (NGO) and would map the population of transgenders in the State and find out their detailed demands such as ration cards, voter identity cards and health facilities etc.

The Government’s announcement was welcomed by to AJ Hariharan Founder Secretary, ICWO, a non-governmental organization. According to him, transgenders are in need of equality and security. They are being shunned by society, suffer offences and crimes and are deprived of basic housing facilities. Not only that. They are forced to take up unpleasant professions such as prostitution. 

Hariharan, who is one of the members of the Transgender Welfare Board, said Tamil Nadu has taken a lead in the country in this direction and it is high time the other States too follow suit and look at the transgenders problems humanely.

The transgender population in Tamil Nadu could be roughly about 60,000 but it’s only after a comprehensive database is made that their actual figure would be known. Hariharan said that once the data base is completed then it would be easier for the welfare board to look into their issues and suggest the best way to resolve them. 

The sorry state of transgenders is a modern age phenomena. In ancient and medieval times they had some respect in the society. Recorded history avers that transgenders were used as palace guards. They were entrusted with the responsibility to look after the security of the female chamber of the royal palace. But with the advent of the Victorian sense of morality imposed by the British rule, the transgenders fell out of the mainstream in India. The Indian society now sees them as evil and immoral.

A peek at the Hindi movies would tell the tale of the status of transgenders in India. Mughal-e-Azam made in 1965 showed them as palace guards during Emperor Akbar’s rule. Some movies based on ancient mythology portray them in positive roles.

However, recent films depict the transgenders as an object of ridicule to provide comic relief to the audience. In Kunwaara Baap (1974) the transgenders are seen in a song and dance sequence that tells the story of an abandoned child. In Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) they are part of the music chorus. In Tamanna (1997) actor Paresh Rawal plays a positive role of Tiku hijra (eunuch) who raises a young orphan girl. Transgenders are also seen in the films like Water (2005) and Bride & Prejudice. The movie 'Shabnam Mausi' (2005) is about the life of a eunuch politician of the same name.

Most transsexuals are born male but see themselves as women. Those detected very early are discarded by the family and are picked up by the transsexuals who raise them as their own. It’s because of the social stigma attached to them that prohibits transgenders to get any conventional jobs.

The most common sight is to see them clapping their hands and begging in streets, trains and buses. They are also seen swooping on a house that has a new born child and leave only after they have taken money from the parents of the child. Some even indulge in sex work and petty crimes.

The road for acceptance as a transgender for persons like Rose has been horrendous. In the hustling streets of Chennai she is always stared at and sometimes even abused. She remains isolated from college friends and neighbors to avoid rejection. Her middle-class parents threw her out from the house when she refused to agree to a suitable bride for her. Rose started working as an American-accent trainer in a call center but her contract was not renewed when she started dressing as a woman.

However, Rose’s sheer determination and courage made her climb the ladder of stardom. Her show ‘Yours Rose,’ has a viewership of over 64 million and is a hit programme. Rose's immense screen presence and confidence has added glamour to it. With great composure she discusses all those subjects that are considered to be brushed under the carpet.

It’s her style of presentation to fight prejudice against the transgenders that has moved the hearts of those walking in the corridors of power in Tamil Nadu. After seeing her they have mooted the idea of the welfare of transgenders. 

However, in a country where the boundaries of sexual tolerance are shifting daily, there is much uncertainty in the line between acceptability and offense as far as the transgenders are concerned. ---- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

SPECIAL ARTICLE

New Delhi, 22 May 2008

Indo-Pak Talks

SANS KEY BREAKTHROUGH

By Dr. Monika Chansoria

(School of International Studies, JNU)

India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee concluded his two-day official visit to Pakistan aimed at reviewing the composite dialogue process on May 21, 2008. The visit ended with both sides signing a pact granting consular access to nationals of their respective country imprisoned by the other.

Nevertheless, a substantial breakthrough failed to come about. Worse, Pakistan overlapped the visit of the Indian External Affairs Minister by signing a peace deal with the Taliban militants in Swat in the disturbed North-West Frontier Province, much to New Delhi’s discontent. 

In a joint statement issued at the end of the talks, the two sides agreed to safeguard the ceasefire on the Line of Control (LoC) as well as confront terrorism. Besides, the two countries committed to seeking ‘an early amicable solution’ on Siachen and noted progress on resolving the Sir Creek dispute. Mukherjee held that in his discussions with Pakistan’s leadership he “found a strong willingness and desire on the Pakistan side to move ahead toward full normalization of our relationship.”

The visit by the Foreign Minister was undertaken to assess the composite dialogue process that was initiated in 2004 amidst much hope and optimism. These talks grabbed considerable attention owing to the fact that they took place following a six-month impasse and expectedly were clouded by issues such as the recent serial bomb blasts in Jaipur leaving scores of people dead and wounded while transforming the city into scenes of carnage.

In addition, New Delhi also raised concerns vis-à-vis the recent incidents of firing on its soldiers from across the LoC. Apparently there have been three such incidents since May this year, with an Indian soldier being killed in trans-LoC firing. Furthermore, India’s Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said after talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, “Both sides made it clear that they attach great importance to the ceasefire and they want to make it hold.”

Consequently, Mukherjee held talks with his counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi where they expectedly discussed various issues including terrorism, exchange of prisoners, bilateral trade, confidence building measures and Kashmir. He also met Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif and Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan.

Crucially, Mukherjee’s visit was of particular significance in another aspect since it was India’s first high-level contact with the freshly elected Government in Islamabad and the Indian Foreign Minister expressed confidence that the “new democratic environment” would help in addressing a range of issues related to peace, stability and economic development.

However, this sanguinity could well be short-lived given the ongoing political turmoil, as the new governing coalition in Islamabad appears to be inching towards dissolution. As a matter of fact, this fragility is touted to cast its shadow on the future of Indo-Pak talks.

In addition, Pranab Mukherjee held a crucial meeting with President Pervez Musharraf where the Pakistani President stated that Islamabad was committed to the peace process with India and wanted to resolve all outstanding issues between the two countries, including Kashmir, through dialogue. Moreover, in a direct message, Musharraf told Mukherjee that the wishes of the Kashmiri people could not be ignored while seeking a solution to the Kashmir issue.

Reacting to Musharraf’s statements, the visiting Foreign Minister said New Delhi too was committed to dialogue and wanted to see “substantial progress on all outstanding issues provided that the atmosphere of talks is free from terrorism, violence and the threat of it.”

On the other hand, militant leaders in Pakistan issued a staid warning to the Pakistani leadership ahead of Mukherjee’s visit telling Islamabad “not to retreat on the Kashmir issue.” This admonition came from the Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin who issued a statement that “the people of Kashmir had no hope in the talks and there would be no progress with India unless Kashmir was resolved.”

A sense emerges that this visit had several prospective expectations including the will of both nations to sustain the turtle-paced dialogue process, in which they might just have met with some success, however, yet another failure to make progress on the foremost dispute, Kashmir remained in the spotlight.

It is suffice to say that verbal affirmations by Pakistan’s leadership towards their commitment to peace by means of the ongoing dialogue process are purely not sufficient and ought to be coupled with firm actions on the ground so as to substantiate their words. Adding to India’s woes, the political volatility in Islamabad’s newly elected Government might just end up pounding the already sluggish dialogue process that started four years ago. --- INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

POLITICAL DIARY

NEW DELHI, 7 January 2006

Phone-Tapping Scandal

DEMOCRACY OR POLICE STATE?

By Poonam I Kaushish

As North India shivers in the blistering cold wave, the Adam’s and Eves in the political Garden of Eden continue to generate heat. Wherein the country is slowly but surely being pushed towards becoming an ‘eves’dropping paradise!          

Poor Amar Singh, the Badshah of ‘Reliable’ infotainment is today deeply involved in a phone-tapping controversy. He has accused the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi of getting his phone tapped. He has produced Home Ministry letters to prove his charge. Interestingly, the tapping was allegedly done by the owner of a private detective agency alongwith a Reliance man, both of whom have been arrested.  

The phone-tapping records are said to pertain to the Samajwadi leader’s gup-shup with some film stars.  While not denying his guftagu, Amar Singh and his party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav have made the tapping into a major political issue. Both have demanded a full fledged enquiry by a special task force instead of the CBI, which they have dubbed as the Congress Bureau of Investigation.

The Congress has rubbished the charges by the SP duo and got only described them as ‘Operation Majnu’ but pointedly asked: Why has an FIR not been filed? Moreover, the tapping had been done by a private party against whom a proper inquiry had already been instituted and two persons had been arrested. But the issue refuses to die down. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalitha, too has joined issue with the SP General Secretary and alleged that she, too, was the victim of phone-tapping. The Left parties have also chipped in and demanded a thorough enquiry.

True, in a narrow political sense, the phone-tapping incident is yet another indicator of how low and dirty our polity plays. There are no rules of the game. Morality and ethics no longer matter. Everything is ‘fair’ in a political war. Having crossed the limits of all maryada, why beat about the bush! Haramzadigi, if I say so, is the new name of the game. But the issue goes far beyond this. It raises serious and pertinent questions about the violation of an individual’s basic right to privacy and his fundamental right to freedom of speech, enshrined in our Constitution. Raising a moot point: Are we slowly degenerating from a democracy into a police state?

There is no denying that phone-tapping is undertaken the world over for reasons of national security or serious crimes. Wiretapping is regulated under the Telegraph Act of 1885.  Officially, only the Union Home Secretary, or his counterparts in the states can issue an order for telephone tapping, and the police are allowed to tap telephones of a person receiving threatening calls. The government is also required to show that the information sought cannot to be obtained through any other means. Tapping has to be done with the assistance of the telecommunications department.

For instance, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is known to possess computers that can catch a key word in a conversation and then record the entire conversation. The computer is fed with the name of the wanted person and any conversation where that person's name is used gets recorded. Recently, two Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists were gunned down by the Delhi police on the basis of their cellphone records. The cricket scandal of match fixing was also exposed thanks to the tapping of the phones of bookies and the former South African captain, Hansie Cronje in 2000.

However, what is distressing is that the powers-that-be are abusing their brute authority to get the phones of their political opponents tapped. In fact, there have been several phone tapping scandals in recent years leading to a Supreme Court direction in 1996. The Court ruled that wiretaps are a "serious invasion of an individual's privacy”. The Court recognized the fact that the right to privacy is an integral part of the fundamental right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution. The Court even laid down guidelines for wiretapping by the government.

Sadly, there is no definite indication that privacy is being respected as per the Supreme Court's guidelines. As India's cream de la cream especially the political class and  the business community shift to cellular phones as the preferred mode of communication, more and more instances are coming to light of not just security agencies but even cellular company employees selling telephone records of rival companies for a consideration or just listening in on conversations. Recall, how phone tapping was taken recourse to in an attempt to destabilize the BJP-BSP coalition Government in UP in 2001. Allegedly a political fixer tapped the phones of the BSP rebels to ensure that they did not desert the Party.

Not many are aware that it is quite easy for anyone to tap the telephone as it does not require much skill. All it takes is the right equipment and the bank account to support the investment. According to detectives, if one pays a little money to the linesman, who is sitting near the telephone exchange, a parallel connection can be arranged and the conversation easily tapped. Another way to eavesdrop upon a telephone conversation is to place a transmitter, one-fourth the size of a matchbox, between the telephone exchange and the phones.

Not only that. With computer-based portable interception devices that not only record conversation and SMS remotely but organise it neatly in a database for future reference, tapping into cellphone is becoming child's play. Easy to operate with the push of a few buttons, these devices come in user-friendly packaging and can be operated on car cigarette lighters. Cellular phone company computers can record millions of movements going back to more than a year and therefore the location of a user at any given time or date can be traced to within a few hundred meters of the exact spot.

Security agencies are now understood to be actively making what are called "plotter's charts" in their terminology. The cellphone of a person visiting the national capital can be locked in their beams by sleuths and even if he does not discuss confidential issues, the signals can track his movements. Though there are methods to prevent tapping, not many make use of them. This involves the use of debugging instrument and scramblers. While abroad people use scrambles which are superior to debugging, but its price keeps people away.

Despite assertions by successive Governments regarding introduction of a new age legislation and the setting up of an organisation to oversee telecom companies, we do not appear to have travelled very far towards ensuring privacy and a fair deal for telecom

subscribers. But as the Amar Singh issue has highlighted, the time has come for a debate on the invasion of privacy. It is not merely an issue of washing of dirty political linen to score petty points. But as more and more people turn to higher technology-based phones of all varieties due to falling rates, privacy and grievance redress will become more and more contentious as it involves the basic issue of human rights. Questions rarely addressed by political parties.

Fortunately, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has done well to have honestly acknowledged that “phone-tapping is a very serious matter”. Asked to comment on the SP’s charge, he also asserted: “Phone-tapping should not be there”.  There are no two views on it”. Clearly, there is an urgent need to shore up public confidence by prescribing  a fresh set of guidelines barring the Government from tapping phones of its rivals. Or else it could turn into a scandalous “political tool and trade practice’. The guidelines must also ensure that owners and employees of cellular companies are denied the pleasure of delving in their backyards for details of persons called by a particular subscriber. If we do not cry a halt now, the country may well end up as a police state.  ----INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)

POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 28 January 2006

 
Rahul Debut’s At Congress Session

CHALNA HAI, CHALNA HAI, PAR KAHAN?

By Poonam I Kaushish

It was billed as the greatest political extravaganza of the new year. A feel good show intended to instill a new vigour and vitality in the Grand Old Party. A lesson in political ABC --- aggression, bounce and confidence --- to achieve greater heights. Alas, all plans went phut. Pricked by scams galore. Which popped up like the proverbial bad penny, leaving the party more deflated than ever.

How else should one describe the 82^nd three-day Congress plenary held at the Gachibowli stadium (renamed Rajiv Nagar) in Hyderabad on 2l-23 January last? Its title –Ateet Ki Neev, Bhavishya Ka Nirman, Nayi Zimadari (Building a future on the foundations of the past is the new responsibility) – could not have been more misleading.

Held as it was under the shadow of the Volcker and Quottrochi scandals, the looming crisis in neighbouring Karnataka where its Government was tottering on its last legs, and skirmishes with the Left on crucial policy matters. But our Congress netagan  typically chose to brush everything under the carpet. Refusing to see the writing on the wall, they continued yet another charade in wishful thinking --- without a new disha and without a fresh sandesh.

Before you read me wrong, this is not to detract from the positive aspects of the session. One, it injected the aphrodisiac called power among the 15,000 delegates who assembled at the Rajiv Nagar, aimed at steering a new direction, sense of consolidation and organizational renewal. Two, boasting of flawless arrangements by the hosts, headed by Congress Chief Minister Rajashekhar Reddy, it proved that when it sets it’s heart on delivering, none can do it better than the Congress. Proved by the 150 computers in the media centre. Three, it lined up a Gen Next leaders, headed by Rahul, who are willing to assert and call a spade a spade.   

Promises were a plenty. So also the pledges. There was a khichri of Nehruvian socialism (reform with a human face) and Manmohanic liberalization. There was lots and lots of secularism without any clue about how it could be translated it into votes. A huge typical Congress tamasha which failed to find answers to the dilemmas facing the party. It refused to address the ticklish issues of striking a balance between its stand on alliances and coalitions and the need to expand its organization and social base in the states ruled by its allies or other opposition parties. What is more, how to fulfil its “coalition dharma”, check corruption, maintain austerity and build bridges between the party and the government.

The political resolution which recognized the inevitability of coalition governments, terming them as ‘a political reality’ at least for the next few years, put the onus for the successful run of such arrangements on its partners. It talked of “collective responsibility.” Asserted Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee at a media briefing, “ Coalitions are a give and take.   Our partners should be ready to give so that all Indians are able to take.  The alternative is too dangerous to even countenance”

The dichotomy was so obvious in the document. “The discipline of coalition politics was honestly and strenuously followed by the Congress from that day (the day it accepted the reality), making the UPA possible and successful.”  Implicit was the message that while the party had followed the dharma, the partners had not. The resolution is almost certain to be contested by the alliance partners as the party shares power with other outfits in many states.  Coalitions in these states have had had their own share of troubles, thanks in no small measure to the attitude displayed by the Congress.

As the crisis in Karnataka has shown, the Congress has none to blame but itself. On the sidelines of the session, senior Congress leaders confided that Dharam Singh was basically to blame. Emboldened by the outcome of the panchayat elections, the state unit ill-advisedly needled the JD(S) and its President HD Deve Gowda. And when the former Prime Minister rushed to Delhi to hold talks with Sonia Gandhi, the latter refused him an audience.

In Andhra Pradesh, the TRS is up in arms against the Grand Dame for its refusal to take any steps towards the fulfillment of its long-standing demands for the creation of a separate state of Telangana. And in Maharashtra, the Congress is engaged in a behind-the scenes feud with the NCP after it overtook the latter in terms of numerical strength in the state assembly.

Similarly, even while the Party exhorts its workers to strive hard to revive the party’s fortunes in the states where its base has been eroded or has a negligible presence, it is tempered with the realization that it cannot declare open war on partners who have grown at its expense. Like the RLD and Jan Shakti in Bihar and the Samajwadi and BSP in UP. Also, with the Left parties being the UPA Government’s ‘life-line’, it cannot afford to get on its wrong side. Notwithstanding the fact that it has gone to considerable pains to dispel speculations about friendly fights in the forthcoming elections in Kerala and West Bengal – States where the Left is directly pitted against the Congress.

Significantly, the Congress maa-beta duo Sonia and Rahul both made a forceful pitch for waging a “long and forceful war to recover ground in the Hindu heartland”. Realizing that they would be trapped in the quagmire of playing second fiddle to regional players in unless they got their act together in the vital states of UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh which account for nearly 200 Lok Sabha seats, Sonia made no bones about the fact that she was no longer satisfied with the Party’s space in coalition politics and extolled her partymen to take “the commanding heights of politics again”.

Undoubtedly both she and Rahul succinctly diagnosed the problem but could not come up with convincing answers to galvanize the comatose units. Specially, against the backdrop of the Party’s shrinking vote nation-wide. Crippled as it with rank indiscipline within. Big, small and petty leaders are all pulling in different directions. In the last three years alone the Party has changed its PCC chief thrice in UP. Not only that. Three top guns “refused” to attend the session. Uttarkhand Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari (dropped from the CWC) and his counter part in Himachal, Vir Bhadra Singh. Bengal leader Ghani Khan Chowdhary who is reportedly keen to join Trinamool’s Mamata. There were loud whispers of discontent about the recent AICC reshuffle specially the reconstitution of the CWC which now has been packed with “non-entities”. How then one wonders will the party recapture its lost glory?

That sycophancy reigns supreme was so evident when speaker-after-speaker eulogized, in glowing terms, the sacrifices made by the Nehru-Gandhi family and, in particular, Sonia Gandhi. Never mind Sonia making amply clear at the outset itself that she did not want the speakers to waste time eulogizing her or Rahul. Even before Rahul had stepped into the city, banners converting his name into an acronym (R-reformist, A-accomplished, H-honest, U-upcoming, L-leadership) had sprung up all over.

Speakers continued to unabashedly croon, “The entire country is looking towards Rahul… Rahul aana, is desh ko aage le jana, (please take the country forward), Rahul lao, Desh bachao.” Slogans were vociferously raised for him to join the CWC. In his maiden address at the session, the Gandhi scion was a picture of calm and composure as he read out from a prepared text, yet never failing to connect.  His speech, which came in the form of an intervention during the discussion on the political resolution, was heard with rapt attention by the delegates.

He posed some soul-searching, posing some uncomfortable, yet real, questions – Why is that the Congress, which, at one point of time, was so strong in the Hindi heartland, has become so weak?  What should be the mantra to re-charge the party apparatus in north India? But there were no answers. True he did not set the Krishna on fire. But the young man minced no words that he meant business. Whether he really means business and can deliver time alone will tell.

In sum, even as Sonia offered the moon and the stars to project a Congress rainbow on India’s future political horizon and every Congressmen present lapped it up, the reality was different. In fact, harsh. Barely had the session ended in a grand finale of a new sankalp the party had mud all over its face. What with the Supreme Court severely indicting Bihar Governor Buta Singh as well as the Central Government and appropriately casting doubts, how so ever politely, about the President’s conduct.  Raising a moot point: How will the Congress fare in its new tryst with destiny. Chalna hai, chalna hai aur chalna hai. But where? ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)